Tag: Dalvin Cook

Is Ezekiel Elliott playing today? Cowboys RB room controversy 2 weeks in row

A look at the Cowboys RB situation heading into Week 9 of the 2024 season. | From @KDDrummondNFL

With the run game struggling, Dallas looked to promote veteran free agent and practice squad member Dalvin Cook last week. A four-time Pro Bowler, Cook was signed at the end of the offseason and naturally had a ramp-up period to get in shape. During that time, concrete evidence was formed that the Cowboys running game was a disaster, worse than the year prior thanks to obvious blocking issues and questions about the quality of the backs who were on the roster.

Cook’s elevation brought the question of who would sit in Week 8, fellow veteran Ezekiel Elliott or youngster Deuce Vaughn. The answer turned out to be starter Rico Dowdle, who it was reported got sick the day of the game but was spotted in good spirits, signing autographs and generally acting like a not-sick person would. That created a storm of conspiracy theory talk, and instead of moving on, Dallas has chosen to ramp things up a notch by leaving Ezekiel Elliott home for the Week 9 trip to Atlanta.

On Saturday the club informed Elliott he was going to be made inactive for the game against the Falcons. Apparently that led to an elevated disagreement between he and the coaching staff to the point the club disciplined him by not allowing him to travel with the team.

Fans should remember, Elliott was brought back to the club after a year in New England under the umbrella of being great for team chemistry.

The Dallas Cowboys may not be a rudderless ship, but they certainly seems to be having trouble negotiating the rough waters of the 2024 season. What metaphor or analogy fits the circumstances best is still to be decided, but things certainly haven’t been handled with the calm and smooth manner one would associate with an organized organization. The running back situation of the last two weeks certainly supports the negative associations.

Jerry Jones says Dalvin Cook unlikely to play vs Giants, but would he even help Cowboys run game?

From @ToddBrock24f7: Jones blamed the short prep week for leaving Cook off the gameday roster, but it’s unclear how things would be different even if he played.

Cowboys fans expecting running back Dalvin Cook to step in and inject some life into the moribund Dallas ground game will have to keep waiting, it seems.

The 29-year-old, signed just prior to the start of the season, will apparently remain on the Cowboys practice squad for yet another gameday when the team travels to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Giants in a divisional showdown on Thursday night.

That’s the report from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, anyway.

“We’ve got a short week here, and I don’t think this is the time that you have any real serious roster adjustments in at that particular time,” Jones told Shan & RJ on 105.3 The Fan during a Tuesday morning phone-in. “So I don’t think so, because of the short week, for sure.”

Cook signed with Dallas on Aug. 28 after spending the summer working out on his own as a free agent. The four-time Pro Bowler was originally a second-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2017 and spent six seasons in Minnesota before playing for the Jets last season and making a brief playoff appearance for the Ravens this past January.

The Cowboys have not yet used a gameday elevation on Cook. Head coach Mike McCarthy gave no indications one way or the other when asked about Cook’s status.

“I’m not here to make any decisions or proclamations on what’s next,” he told reporters at his Monday press conference.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack has been largely stuck in neutral through the first three games of the season. The team ranks 30th out of 32 in both rushing attempts (62) and rushing yards (221), and only three clubs currently have a lower yards-per-carry average than Dallas’s 3.6.

But honestly, would Cook provide a tangible improvement?

He posted lots of the typical gym workout videos to social media during his offseason of unemployment, but the stats don’t necessarily point to him being some savior-in-waiting for the Cowboys.

Cook saw only sparse action last year in a Jets offense that had to be completely retooled after the season-opening injury to Aaron Rodgers. As a result, his last objectively strong performance came a week before Christmas 2022, when he carried the ball 19 times for 95 yards and a 5.59-yard average in a Vikings win over Indianapolis. His last rushing touchdown came the week before that, and his most recent 100-yard game was mid-November of that year. And Cook hasn’t tallied back-to-back 100-yard outings since December 2020.

Compare that to Ezekiel Elliott, once again wearing the silver and blue after one season in New England. He did post a last strong showing in Week 3 last year, totaling 80 yards on 16 carries in a Patriots win (over, ironically, Cook and the Jets). But Elliott’s last 100-yard day came in October 2021, nearly two calendar years ago; it was also the second of his most recent back-to-back 100-yard games.

Rico Dowdle is currently the Cowboys’ leading rusher heading into Week 4, though that’s not saying much. Dowdle’s 88 yards through three games ranks just 49th leaguewide; Elliott (62 yards) is in 63rd place.

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The Cowboys have been unable to commit to the run thanks to early deficits in consecutive games, but they also have yet to show any real ability to be effective when they do run. The offensive line that Elliott and Dowdle are both struggling behind is the same shaky unit that Cook would be working with.

The most optimistic of Cowboys faithful may cling to a belief that Cook- who received almost no notable interest from any other club all summer long- is the missing piece that will get the Dallas offense finally clicking.

But in truth, there’s little reason to believe that’s true.

And, per Jones, there’s no reason to believe Cook will even get a chance Thursday night.

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Cook will help Cowboys ‘play wide open,’ per McCarthy, but don’t discount Dowdle

From @ToddBrock24f7: McCarthy is OK with RB-by-committee, but the 15k yards between Dalvin and Cook and Ezekiel Elliott won’t leave Rico Dowdle out of the mix.

The addition of four-time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook may have muddied the waters, at least in terms of projecting which ballcarrier will get the lion’s share of the workload in Dallas this season.

But to hear head coach Mike McCarthy tell it, that’s kind of the point.

Cook will start out on the Cowboys practice squad as he acclimates himself to the playbook and ramps up to game speed after working out on his own all spring and summer. But the team clearly has plans for him on Sundays, and he’ll eventually join a platoon that already includes two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott, a resurgent Deuce Vaughn, and Rico Dowdle, who many observers have said looks like the best back of the bunch this offseason.

“What’s the definition of ‘committee?'” McCarthy asked reporters during a Thursday press conference. “As a play caller, you want to play wide open- first, second, third down- and you want it to flow. My definition of ‘committee’ is: it’s a long year. You want to be able to have distribution throughout that position because of the toll that it takes on the running back position.”

As for which one opposing defenses see in the Dallas backfield, McCarthy explained, it will all depend on the moment.

“We don’t want to necessarily be in personnel groups that every time this particular player runs in or this particular player runs in [the defense knows what’s coming]. After three or four weeks, you have major tendencies,” he warned. “We want to be able to utilize all those guys but stay in a normal flow.”

The late signing of Cook- just 12 days before the season opener in Cleveland- does throw a wild card into how the Cowboys’ running back committee has looked in camp and the preseason. But the coach confirmed that signing the former second-round draft pick- who’s had four 1,000-yard campaigns in seven NFL seasons- was no spur-of-the-moment impulse purchase.

“There’s been interest for quite some time,” McCarthy said. “Personally, I’m a fan. I’ve seen him run down the sideline from the opposite side of the field too many times. He’s just a hell of a player. I think when you just look at our roster additions this year, we’ve added some veteran experience- more than we’ve had in the past- and he’s a great example of it.”

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But pairing Cook with Elliott- the two have combined for over 15,000 career rushing yards and seven Pro Bowl nods- should in no way leave Dowdle, who has a grand total of 385 rushing yards after four injury-filled pro seasons, as the odd man out.

McCarthy readily admits that the undrafted South Carolina product will see “a lesser role” only on special teams this year, and that’s because the plan is for him to play more in the Cowboys offense.

“I think I definitely should get a bigger role this year, and I’m looking forward to it,” Dowdle said after Cook’s signing, per The Athletic‘s Jon Machota. “The more you can do, the better. When you can catch out of the backfield, run routes, and also run the ball well, it’s hard to take you off the field. I want to be a three-down back.”

And being in a timeshare with two longtime workhorses doesn’t worry Dowdle in the least.

“One guy is not going out there, being on an eight-play drive, staying eight plays in a row or something like that,” he said. “It’s kind of flipping it: four and four, having a third guy come in, just making sure we have fresh legs on the field at all times.”

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Cowboys officially add Dalvin Cook, assign jersey number as team rounds out practice squad

A look at Dallas’ complete practice squad to start the 2024 season. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have officially rounded out their 17-man practice squad with a couple of Wednesday signings. Running back Dalvin Cook, announced by the media earlier this week has officially been added on to the club, starting the countdown for his debut.

On Thursday he was assigned a jersey number, No. 20, formerly worn by Tony Pollard in Dallas. In addition to bringing Cook aboard, the club added CB Amani Oruwariye and DT Phil Hoskins. Oruwariye, 6-foot-2, has been in the league since 2019, spending his first four seasons with Detroit. He was a member of the New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squads the last two years and spent this summer with the Jaguars as well.

Hoskins is a former seventh-round pick of the Carolina Panthers in 2021 and spent two seasons in Charlotte. At 6-foot-5, 280 pounds he has also spent time with both Kansas City and Arizona.

The Cowboys are starting their preparation for their Week 1 matchup against the Cleveland Browns. The team whittled down their offseason roster to 53 on Tuesday and has spent the last two days working to fill out their practice squad. NFL rules allow for 16 players, but teams get an exemption to carry an International Pathway Program player.

For Dallas, that 17th man is defensive tackle Denzel Daxon.

Here’s a look at the entire practice squad.

RB Malik Davis
RB Dalvin Cook
TE Princeton Fant
WR Jalen Cropper
WR Kelvin Harmon
OC Dakoda Shepley
OL Josh Ball
DE Carl Lawson
DT Phil Hoskins
DT Denzel Daxon (IPP)
LB Darius Harris
LB Brock Mogensen
LB Nick Vigil
CB Kemon Hall
CB Josh Butler
CB Amani Oruwariye
Saf Emany Johnson

Former Vikings RB signs with Cowboys, reunites with former HC

Former Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook is back in the NFL after signing with the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday.

Former Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook is back in the NFL after signing with the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday. The former Viking heads to Dallas after playing for the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets during the 2023 season.

Cook signs with the Cowboys as the team looks to find its footing at the running back position. The team also has Deuce Vaughn and Ezekiel Elliott on the roster. Who will earn what role is yet to be determined with Cook’s arrival.

Cook spent the previous six years with the Vikings after being drafted by the team in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

Cook is the third all-time leading rusher for the Vikings in franchise history with 5,993 yards. Since his departure, the team has struggled to find a new starting running back with a rotation of Alexander Mattison, Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu, and now Aaron Jones.

They hope the former Green Bay Packer can serve as a long-term solution.

Dalvin Cook signing with Dallas Cowboys

Dalvin Cook is joining the Dallas Cowboys

Ezekiel Elliott will have veteran company in the running back room with the Dallas Cowboys.

The NFC East team is signing Dalvin Cook, who has bounced around since starring with the Minnesota Vikings.

Cook rushed for almost 6,000 yards with the Vikings. Since, he has been with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens with minimal success.

He is going into his eighth NFL season.

Cooked: Cowboys add super experienced veteran to running back brigade

From @ToddBrock24f7: After a workout earlier this week, the 29-year-old and 4-time Pro Bowler is expected to sign on to join the Cowboys’ practice squad.

The Cowboys are adding a four-time 1,000-yard rusher for depth at the running back position, but he may not see the field right away.

Former Vikings star Dalvin Cook, also a four-time Pro Bowler, will sign with Dallas, according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero and multiple Wednesday morning reports. The development comes after a workout with the club earlier in the week. Cook is expected to start out on the Cowboys practice squad.

Cook reportedly had a workout scheduled with the Colts for later this week, but there will apparently be no need for that now.

Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn, and Hunter Luepke make up the current position group on the team’s 53-man roster, which was revealed Tuesday.

Cook, 29, brings considerable NFL experience. A second-round draft pick by Minnesota in 2017, the Florida State product got off to a torrid start under head coach Mike Zimmer, breaking the Vikings’ record for rushing yards by a rookie in his debut outing, a mark previously held by Adrian Peterson. But Cook’s first pro season was ended prematurely by a knee injury three weeks later.

After a mediocre sophomore campaign, Cook broke out in his third season and went on a run of four consecutive 1,000-yard years, hitting career highs of 1,557 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns in 2020.

Despite topping the 1,000-yard barrier and going to the Pro Bowl once again in 2022, he found himself looking for a new team in 2023 after declining to take a pay cut from the Vikings. A one-year deal with Jets went nowhere fast, as Cook- who was recovering from a shoulder injury- was cast in a secondary role behind Breece Hall. The team and Cook split in January, just before the regular-season finale.

Baltimore signed Cook to their practice squad heading into Week 18 and elevated him to the active roster in time to play in the Ravens’ divisional-round win over Houston, where he logged 23 yards on eight carries.

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But there were concerns about Cook’s age and mileage over the offseason, and he remained a high-profile free agent throughout, even as backs like Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, D’Andre Swift, and the Cowboys’ own Tony Pollard were inked to deals with new teams. Cook spent the spring and summer months further rehabbing his shoulder and training on his own; he told NFL Media he feels “the best he has in years.”

Many thought the Cowboys should have pursued Cook instead of reuniting with Elliott over the offseason. A look at their career stats show they have similar production; Cook entered the league a year after Elliott but is younger by just 19 days.

Ezekiel Elliott Dalvin Cook
Gms 120 88
Atts 2,065 1,349
Rush Yds 8,904 6,207
Yds/Att 4.3 4.6
Rush TDs 71 47
Recs 356 236
Rec Yds 2,649 1,872
Yds/Rec 7.4 7.9
Rec TDs 14 5
Pro Bowls 3 4

Once he is acclimated to the practice squad in Dallas, Cook will be eligible for up to three gameday roster elevations. After that, the team will have to either promote him to the active roster or release him.

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Former Ravens RB Dalvin Cook to sign with Cowboys

Former Vikings, Jets and Ravens running back Dalvin Cook to sign with the Dallas Cowboys

Dalvin Cook will face one of his former teams this season, as the running back of the ex-Vikings, Jets, and Ravens is signing a one-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys. During his one season with the Jets, Cook had 67 carries for 214 yards.

Looking to join a Super Bowl contender, Cook was released in early January and signed with the Ravens. In his one outing where he was active, Cook had eight carries for 23 yards in a playoff win over Houston.

He did not play in the AFC Championship loss to the Chiefs.

Cook has seen his yards per carry dwindle over the past four years:

2020: 5.0
2021: 4.7
2022: 4.4
2023: 3.2

Still, he’s a veteran running back with a penchant for avoiding big hits and picking up much-needed yards. He’ll join a committee of running backs in Dallas, including Rico Dowdle, Ezekiel Elliott, and Duece Vaughn.

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Geriatric Cowboys continue calling on veteran FA, hoping they’re fine wine

With two more veterans visiting the team, the Dallas Cowboys continue to add older players to the 2024 roster. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys like the players they’ve got, unless they don’t. When that happens, they turn to older players who’ve had past success. Stephen Jones’ philosophy over the past decade-plus is the team doesn’t spend money in free agency because they like the core players they have. Improvement will come from drafting and the Cowboys’ ability to develop their own players.

That was what the Joneses tried to sell the fan base on this offseason while sitting on their hands for months on end. Yet now, the organization seems to be in a bit of a panic. They are lacking depth – which could’ve been avoided by being proactive in free agency – and now Dallas is the place to be for any veteran player looking to stay employed in the NFL.

After signing a few older players recently, the trend has continued. The latest invites are more experienced options in running back Dalvin Cook and pass rusher Tyus Bowser.

Cook played for the Minnesota Vikings for six years, which included four straight 1,000-yard seasons and four Pro Bowl appearances. He’s just two years removed from his last 1,000-yard campaign, but Cook fizzled out last year with the New York Jets before they released him and he wound up signing with the Baltimore Ravens for the playoffs. Between the two teams, Cook rushed for just 214 yards and a career worst 3.2 yards a carry.

At 29-years old, the best days are behind Cook. Yet the Cowboys are interested in him to pair with another older, plodding RB in Ezekiel Elliott, who is ironically the same age.

Bowser is another 29-year-old the team is bringing in for a workout. After having a few good years with the Ravens and topping out at seven sacks in 2021, Bowser tore his Achilles in the same season, which limited his output in 2022. The defensive end was hurt last summer and never played in the 2023 season.

However, the Cowboys need pass rushing help and don’t seem swayed by the injury history from Bowser, who has played a full season just three times. Bowser could replace another older pass rusher the Cowboys had signed recently, Carl Lawson, who happens to be the magical age of 29 but was released on Tuesday. Another veteran the Cowboys signed this summer is defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, who wears number 92, which is the inverse of his age, 29-years old.

The Cook and Bowser workouts come after the Cowboys traded for defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, who is currently 31, but will turn 32-years old in September, and signed another DT, Linval Joseph, off the streets at 35-years old. There’s not a lot of youth there for the recently added group.

Then again, adding veterans has been the tenor for the entirety of the slow offseason. The only two players who were considered quality acquisitions for the Cowboys were both around the age of 30. Elliott is 29, which is ancient for a RB, and linebacker Eric Kendricks, is 32-years old.

Now, late in the offseason, the Cowboys seem to continue to be heading down the same path. What makes adding these veterans this late so frustrating is the team could’ve just signed a much better, and younger, player or two when free agency began, instead of trying to find answers now. Dallas didn’t need to sign the best guys on the open market in March, but being a little aggressive in finding younger talent then could’ve avoided the search now, when their options are limited.

Perhaps we now know why Jerry Jones said the team would be “all-in,” because this is the last time many of these players will play in the league.

Just call them the geriatric Cowboys.

You can chat with or follow Ben on twitter @BenGrimaldi

Ravens may not be the final NFL team for Dalvin Cook

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that the Dallas Cowboys flew Dalvin Cook in for a free agent visit on Monday.

In the words of rapper Lil B, “Let him cook!” Or maybe, in this case, it’s “let him cook?” When the Baltimore Ravens signed Dalvin Cook to the practice squad this January, it looked like it was the Last Chance Saloon for the four-time Pro Bowler.

After all, his 2023 season saw him average just 3.2 yards per carry, more than a full yard below his previous career low for that category. Plus, he went unclaimed on waivers before the Ravens nabbed him.

However, Cook was moved up to the active roster, and he had a nice 19-yard run in the Ravens’ 34-10 Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans.

However, no team, including the Ravens, was interested in Florida State’s all-time leading rusher for 2024—until now.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that the Dallas Cowboys flew Cook in for a free-agent visit on Monday.

Cook, 29, is just a few weeks younger than Ezekiel Elliott, who returned to the Cowboys this spring after one abysmal season with the New England Patriots. Like Cook, Elliott has seen his statistical production steadily drop in recent years.

While neither man is “old” by any means, they are “aging poorly” by NFL running back standards. This has led to some funny social media postings in response to the potential pairing of Cook and Elliott.

This posting by @BEEHIGHB, featuring Emmitt Smith as a Cardinal and Jerry Rice as a Seahawk, is pretty funny:

Ditto for this tweet by @SteelersRuinMe referencing that famous Super Bowl ad with all the long-retired legends.